6 Tips for Managing Finals Week Stress at SRU

It’s here—finals. Everybody is slammed with papers, presentations, projects, and more. Figuring out how to manage all those responsibilities and maintain relatively good mental health is tough.

Stress levels are uncommonly high during finals week. These levels of anxiety do nothing to help your focus on school work, so it’s vital to do whatever you possibly can to lessen the anxieties. We’ve compiled a few tips on how to manage finals week stress—check them out below.

Tips for Managing Finals Week Stress

1. Plan It Out

Before you start stressing, write down each and every task you need to complete by the end of the week. Color code each task by difficulty level—what’s the easiest and quickest thing to check off your list? What’s going to take up the most time?

From there, plan out each day. For the tasks that will take up more time, plan accordingly by giving yourself larger chunks of time to work on those projects. The more you plan out, the less of a jumbled mess all the projects will be in your mind.

2. Make Sure to Eat

A lot of students make the mistake of getting so engrossed in a project that they end up skipping a meal. Don’t do that! Take the time to nourish your body.

As easy as it sounds to pick up some fast food, that won’t give your body and brain the nutrients it needs to make it through finals. Stock up on fruits, veggies, and other brain foods. Eat three times a day and drink plenty of water so that your brain has fuel to run on. If you don’t, you’ll notice a significant drag in your productivity.

Stop in at Moonlight Breakfast the first night of finals week for free food!

3. Don’t Close Yourself Off

Don’t seal yourself off to your room or at a table in the library. Make sure you’re still socializing. Your brain is going to tire of working all day, every day, so take the time to find peer support. Participate in study groups, eat dinner with your classmates, or sit next to a friend as you study. Working with others will help with productivity.

With the library open 24 hours during the week, “Club Bailey” is the perfect time to study with your peers around you.

4. Keep Exercising

Take the time to go outside and get moving each day. Exercise should be one of the activities you work into each day. Staying active will improve your mood, lessen stress, and give your brain a much-needed boost. Even if it’s just a walk around the block, exercise will help you take a step back from schoolwork and improve your mental health.

5. Don’t Forget to Sleep

If you’ve planned out your time well, there should be no need for an all-nighter. Getting the whole project done in one night may seem like a better idea, but that will only harm your health. Plan to get plenty of sleep—if anything, wake up a bit earlier than normal to get a head start on your work for the day.

6. Take Breaks

The biggest piece of advice we have for you is to make sure you take breaks throughout the day. Try the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working in 25-minute intervals to ensure focus, then taking a break for three to five minutes. The more you focus on a task with no distractions (put a pause on your social media activity), the more work you’ll complete. Breaks will split up the day and give you a reprieve from all the tasks at hand.